"We need a big infrastructure to be able to deliver high-quality care going forward," Emanuel said. "I've consulted with my friends the Tooth Fairy and the Skittle Pooping Unicorn, and they assure me that this is possible."

No, this is full on real Moose poop. We don’t need a big infrastucture if both the Government and the Big Employers got out of providing so-called medical insurance. If the individual states and cities want to develop programs for their poor CITIZENS (note, no illegal/undocumented trespassers need apply), that’s fine with me. I wouldn’t live anywhere that was giving away the farm like NYC and Chicago, etc. All of us, regardless of age, should be able to buy our own insurance that meets our needs. Costs would drop precipitously because insurance would take its rightful place as a “risk” based product. Notice how the discussion interchangeably uses the words COST and PRICE. Big difference. Hospitals have long been charging way more than they ever recover in actual payments from insurance companies. If you don’t have insurance, you get charged the full price. It’s really quite a racket.

But this is just the first sixth of our economy. We won’t have real efficiency until housing and food and exercise (recreation) have a very large infrastructure as well. Arguably, government, transportation and education already have very large infrastrctures of their own.

While talking to my dermo a couple of weeks ago, I was told that since they are being forced to upgrade/digitize just about everything there would be less hours available for actually seeing and treating patients. Appointments would be more scarce and patient time would be shorter. Sounds like a good idear to me. NOT!

6
posted on 04/13/2013 9:27:42 AM PDT
by rktman
(BACKGROUND CHECKS? YOU FIRST MR. PRESIDENT!(not that we'd get the truth!))

"We need a big infrastructure to be able to deliver high-quality care going forward," Emanuel said.

It's that "big infrastructure" that's created the mess we're in. It started with WW2 wage controls adding health insurance as an employment benefit, the 1965 Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (Medicare) supercharged it and now Obamacare has it flying into the mountain at full speed and on afterburners.

If you ever want to see a higher quality product at a lower cost, you'd need a smaller infrastructure, with less government control.

10
posted on 04/13/2013 9:41:02 AM PDT
by Sooth2222
("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)

If I had to run my practice like that, there would be a lot of unhappy clients. It’s not about the money you know. If you are running a bank, yes, a medical or legal practice, it’s about the client with the problem.

“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”

“We need a big infrastructure to be able to deliver high-quality care going forward,”

This is such a load of crap. Hasn’t ANYONE in government heard of the KISS system? Adding on to the government infrastructure every day is what’s gotten us where we are today. These twits want to push us over the edge.

14
posted on 04/13/2013 9:58:39 AM PDT
by freeangel
( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)

All of us, regardless of age, should be able to buy our own insurance that meets our needs.

True but what frustrates me is that actually many of us did not have to pay the full cost since employers provided it as a benefit of employment. That is now going away since the feds have screwed things up.

It is ludicrous for the feds to be lecturing anyone about keeping costs down when the cost of government is skyrocketing and the cost of health care and health care insurance is skyrocketing due to government interference.

Ultimately they need to let the patient decide what is value of cost is. The only thing doctors need to do is educate the patent on the value of each product & service vs alternatives.

Doctors may not want to be in this position. If they don’t they could alternatively sell the whole package. Charge the patent a standard rates(Like their own insurance plan) and decide themselves what they need to figure out whats going on. (This may be the way to go.)
Another way is to just sell their individual service and let the patent contract with whatever else they need. In other-words the doctor acts as a consultant.

Beyond solving compact medical problems among specialist I don’t see the need for doctors to collectivize, that just reduces the possibility of competition further.

Yea that seemed a bit nutty to me as well. along with the Standardized practices one.

If your going to see a doctor then he should proceed based upon symptoms. In any-event the cost of his individual services are not the driving factor in the cost of healthcare. The driving force in the cost of healthcare is everything else namely insurance Government & otherwise which removes price selection from the system.

Without price selection all aspects of the service can cost almost as much as they want and so their costs have no where to go but up as fast as they can.

Docs Told They Must Drive Health System Change >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yeah Right.

Since when do doctors want to give away all their professional freedom and billing power to a liberal fascist system of faulty health care and death panels?

Look what happened in Canada. Now doctors there are nothing but vicarious civil servants paid by the government, with salary caps and dictatorial guidelines on service, designed to minimize cost, and Canadian health care comprises 55% of the federal governments budget in Canada. This linmits even the size of the Canadian Armed forces to a paltry 100, 000 individuals, so that the nation cannot even preserve its sovereignty from the Russians in the North.

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